Obsessive Platy?

Paradise3

Fish Aficionado
Joined
Jan 13, 2010
Messages
4,828
Reaction score
4
Location
GB
So I have five platies in my tank, 4 females and 1 male. I know how much male livebearers want to breed, breed, breed but my male seems obsessive about one female in particular!
 
I have a trio of Red Wags(the male and two females), one Calico and one Tuxedo. 
 
The male is obsessive about following one of the Red Wag females constantly. Whenever I see him he's with her or if he's on his own he's frantically searching for her. 
 
By frantically I mean he darts around the tank like a mad fish looking for her... And then, when he finds her, she runs away because she doesn't want to be with him so he chases her!
 
The pair have run into the other three females while the Red Wag girl is trying to get away and he just doesn't care. My Tuxedo doesn't even appear to be pregnant so I assume that means he's paying her no attention at all since she was in a female only tank in the shop and I had her in QT for over a month with no babies
confused.gif


My Calico I'm not sure about. Her size doesn't seem to have changed at all though so I suspect she's probably being ignored too. 
 
He does chase the other Red Wag but only occasionally and only when she comes near the other Red Wag female.
 
What is going on with this boy?! He is stressing the poor girl out because she doesn't want him near her! He's done it since before I got these other two and now even after adding them as I started with the trio of Red Wags.
 
Thanks in advance.
 
I had it happen too. He has a series crush on her. LOL. But it is annoying for the female.
You can't make him fancy the other females. What about adding a few  more female red wags to the tank.
You could end up them over run with fry.
 
WILDER said:
I had it happen too. He has a series crush on her. LOL. But it is annoying for the female.
You can't make him fancy the other females. What about adding a few  more female red wags to the tank.
You could end up them over run with fry.
 
That's my problem, my tank is already fully stocked and I don't think adding more Red Wags would help because I already have two and he pretty much ignores the one unless she goes near his girl and then he chases her off. I was wondering if removing the stressed girl for a bit or the boy would help settle things down or would it just make them worse? I have an extra tank I can move one or the other to for however long so it's possible for me, but would it help.
 
A cooling off period might help. Males are males i'm afraid he would just go back to his old habits.
If the female is stressed I would move her. Hopefully he might pay attention to the other females with her gone
for a while.
 
WILDER said:
A cooling off period might help. Males are males i'm afraid he would just go back to his old habits.
If the female is stressed I would move her. Hopefully he might pay attention to the other females with her gone
for a while.
 
I was thinking moving the female would be better as she really is stressed. She cannot physically swim around long enough to escape him now and is panting practically constantly. I also thought leaving him with the other females might take his attention but I also worry that he will be stressed without her as he panics a lot when she disappears from him, darts around looking for her until he finds her.
 
Did you manage to improve the situation?
 
WILDER said:
Did you manage to improve the situation?
 
I moved the harassed female over to my other tank and he spent about 2 days frantically searching for her and then got over it. But he still doesn't seem interested in the other females at all :( Now he is choosing to ignore them.... 

The other female is still in my other tank for now as she's starting to get round again.. So I don't want to move her over until she's given birth, just to try and lower the chance that he's instantly going to go back to her if that makes sense?
 
Thank you for the update.
 
Glad she getting a well earned break.
Sadly there is a chance he will just harass her to death if she goes back in the tank with him.
 
RyanTheFishGuy64 said:
Cool, whats in your other tank?
 
I have my 2ft(15 gallon) which is my main tank which has(and is a bit overstocked I know but I am strict with waterchanges and it's not huge fish):
5 Female Guppies.
3 Male Endler x Guppies.
3(currently) Female Platies.
1 Male Platy.
1 Male Betta(getting old, does't care about the guppies).
2 Otocinclus.
1 Farlowella(biggest fish in there, fully grown now at 5 inch).
 
And I have a 5.5 gallon tank which my fiance will be having for Rili Shrimp soon.
Currently has:
1 Male Betta(rescue, looking for a good forever home).
1 Zebra Danio(as above).
1 Female Platy(hopefully getting move back over after her next drop).
 
WILDER said:
Thank you for the update.
 
Glad she getting a well earned break.
Sadly there is a chance he will just harass her to death if she goes back in the tank with him.
 
I know there is unfortunately... So I think if he does go straight back to harassing her I will move him over to the other tank permanently and only move him back if I want to breed them(after the females that are pregnant have cycled out that is).
 

Most reactions

Back
Top